whether it's the deficit, whether it's government spending, whether it's entitlements, immigration, infrastructure, education, that broad middle band that used to be so strong in the congress of members of congress center-left, center-right, people i used to call "bridge builders" that's where the country has always been governed from. the country has moved forward based on great ideas from both the left and the right, but it's been the centrists that have translated those into law through compromise. that's the foundation of our political stability and of our political system. the american constitution is built on compromise and created a political system that demands compromise. and unless we can come together on policies to deal with these flabz can survive one congress and one presidency, then i think we're in real trouble. one of the reasons i think we were successful in the cold war was we followed a basic strategy toward the soviet union-- containment-- through nine successive presidents, both exprns democrats. big problems require a long long time to solve. it took us a long time to get in